University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Steenbock Library's first floor reopened with new study spaces, active learning classrooms and an updated look for the fall semester.
The renovation project received $6.7 million in the 2023 State of Wisconsin budget under the Instructional Space Project Program, according to Deborah Helman, Director of Science & Engineering Library Services. The project took a year to complete.
As part of the renovations, the STEM Commons, formerly called BioCommons, reopened on Steenbock’s first floor.
Students can reserve study rooms, attend events and access campus resources. Events include Peer Leader Pop-Ins where students can receive mentorship from peers in STEM, biannual Research Mentor Workshops offering help finding a research mentor and STEM Study Squads, peer-led study groups that bring together students from similar STEM disciplines.
The first floor includes two new classrooms that sit 96 students apiece, an event space that seats 74, study spaces and other multipurpose rooms. The university emphasized the Commons as an area where students across STEM disciplines can connect and share ideas.
Aro Eberle Architects designed the space and Thysse, an Oregon, Wisconsin based commercial printing and branding company, was hired to remodel and rebrand the STEM Commons.
Thysse advised UW-Madison on the name change from BioCommons to STEM Commons after the university had already consulted focus groups on the name change, Kris Marconnet, a senior designer at Thysse, told The Cardinal.
The revised name reflects the space’s shift from a biology focus to all facets of STEM.
“Rebranding as the STEM Commons highlights our commitment to serving all STEM students with programming and spaces to enhance their undergraduate experience,” Helman wrote in an email to The Cardinal.
“It's not just one science. It's bringing all these different components together,” Marconnet said. “They wanted to have a larger area to be able to support all these different people, so they'd have a venue to come together and ideate… and be able to encase a much larger, broader category than just biology.”
Accompanying the name change, Thysse created a new STEM Commons logo: a “meta-ball shape,” with circles interlocking and coming together in one form. This shape is an abstract visual metaphor for different disciplines and ideas coming together and growing, Marconnet said.
Instead of the beakers and flasks previously displayed in the Commons, UW-Madison wanted imagery that reflected the university’s progressive mission, according to Helman.
This meta-ball theme carried into Thysse’s design work within the STEM Commons corridor.
When Marconnet visited the renovation site, she found a concrete room but saw a design vision that reflected the connection and growth STEM Commons is meant to foster: a moss feature wall.
“The connection and collaboration again were such important parts,” Marconnet said. “So visually showing… connection and overlapping and growth and growing and ideas expanding from a small piece into a larger network of a piece.”
